Saturday, February 16, 2013

Have a read of this article from the Stuff website. It's about plans for 21st century learning in New Zealand. The article starts:

'A classroom where a digital teacher delivers a lesson from another
city is being touted as the way forward for education in the 21st
century.

The education and science select committee's "Inquiry into 21st
century learning environments and digital literacy" focuses on
redesigning education and creating modern schools'.

I really like some of the ideas and vision in the article. However, what I can say from my own experience as a teacher and leader in New Zealand schools is that there is a long way to go in regards to infrastructure and resource allocation before these ideas come to fruition, especially in low decile schools.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

'High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about a lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing call for science teachers to ditch the jargon and extreme precision, and instead make science sing through stories and demonstrations'.